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There were more knock-off Ye Qiu accounts than there were professional players - it was the price to pay for being the only pro to not have any social media presence at all despite being so well known. The pretenders were rampant. But mere pretenders never got popular. Everyone knew Ye Qiu's unstated policy of avoiding any public appearances, even digitally. Instead, it was the joke accounts that were far more popular.
"Ye Qiu's Hands" was the first of such accounts to gain fame. It was a compilation of various images and montage videos of - as the name stated - Ye Qiu's hands going absolutely ham on the keyboard. Initially, it consisted of actual clips from a rare stream where there was a player cam set to record Ye Qiu's hands to prove that yes, he was indeed an actual human and not a computer AI the Glory Devs were testing on the Pro League. But later, the clips devolved into parodies of increasingly ridiculous computer antics set to dramatic music and sometimes ending in the unfortunate destruction of the keyboard displayed.
It was a hit.
This account was soon followed by all sorts of variations: "Ye Qiu's Keyboards" was a compilation of broken keyboards that were destroyed, presumably, by Ye Qiu's godly touch.
"Might Be Ye Qiu" was a series of pictures of random creatures that were (probably) not Ye Qiu, featuring everything from cats to fish captioned with Ye Qiu’s iconic lines or photoshopped wearing the Excellent Era logo.
And "Did I Just Get Killed By Ye Qiu" was simply a place to pay respects to videos of people getting absolutely demolished in Arena by unknown players suspected to be Ye Qiu’s alt.
The list went on and on, but the popularity of such accounts started to die as the jokes became over saturated. At least, that was until the ultimate "Ye Qiu" joke account appeared.
The account was bold enough to just name itself "Ye Qiu" without any modifiers. But there was no question it was a joke account, because the profile picture featured a cardboard cutout of a human-shaped silhouette with a question mark for a face. The same exact cardboard cutout that had been laughed and joked about at the first All-Stars event when it was discovered among the cardboard cutouts of other Pros.
The very first post of the account was a picture of an arena match loss with the cardboard cutout fallen face down on the keyboard rather pathetically. It was captioned, "Can't play with these hands."
It was so unexpected, so contrary to the indomitable image of the "Ye Qiu" who had just won three championships in a row, that it was instantly reblogged thousands of times within the first day.
("Haha, I took a pic with this cardboard at All-Stars! Guess not all versions of Ye Qiu were made equal..."
"So even the Great God can't play without hands..."
"OP, how did you steal this from the venue??")
Many people started following for the memes, but many also ended up staying for the hilarious and surprisingly wholesome alternative life of Cardboard Cutout Ye Qiu.
Cardboard Cutout Ye Qiu had a dog: a cute mutt who first appeared curled up protectively around the piece of cardboard like it was a long lost friend. The photo was captioned: "Little Dot is a loyal dog."
("I would die for Little Dot," one commenter exclaimed within seconds of the post.
"Little Dot would die for Ye Qiu!!" another commenter replied just as fast with an absurd amount of crying emojis spammed for extra effect.)
For the first weeks, the Weibo was just pictures of Little Dot and Cardboard Ye Qiu.
"Little Dot wants to play."
("Little Dot, working hard! Ye Qiu is so mean, just because you have no hands doesn't mean you have to tape the toy all the way up on your forehead!!"
"I understand now, when Ye Qiu isn't raising accounts, he's raising his dog huh?")
"Little Dot broke my keyboard."
("Wow, so even this Ye Qiu has his keyboards broken!"
"The name Ye Qiu is a curse upon keyboards. I heard if you repeat it three times at the stroke of midnight your keyboard will stop working.")
But eventually, the account began to diversify. Next there was Cardboard Cutout Ye Qiu eating at various restaurants. But people quickly picked up that these weren’t ordinary restaurants. The rapidly growing legion of Cardboard Cutout Ye Qiu followers sleuthed out that Cardboard Cutout Ye Qiu must have been absolutely rich to eat at some of these places.
"A meal for two, but I'm eating it all myself."
("Guys, I just calculated and...this whole meal is worth more than my paycheck..." For proof, the commenter attached a picture of the menu prices. It easily rose as the top comment.
"What a Ye Qiu power move??? Directly slapping us with the combo of food porn and money waving like it's nothing...so efficient..."
"God Ye please let me eat with you!!!")
And then Cardboard Cutout Ye Qiu began to appear at all sorts of tourist spots. No one had known they had always wanted a video of a Cardboard Cutout of their favorite pro taped to skating gear and pushed down a mountain until they saw it, but the millions of views confirmed everyone's secret unrealized desire.
("Hahahahahahahaha!!! Get wrecked Ye Qiu!"
"Oh my god was that actually Huang Shaotian above???"
"How does OP keep managing to sneak this cardboard cutout around?? I'm starting to believe he is actually Ye Qiu with how good he is at avoiding anyone seeing him!")
Needless to say, people became invested. It got to the point that people subtly started to try to ask the Pro Gamer Ye Qiu about his alternative Cardboard Cutout life.
The innocuous question of "Have you ever had a pet?" managed to sneak its way into the only interview Ye Qiu had ever agreed to do over QQ.
"...I had a dog before," Ye Qiu had replied. "His name was Little Dot."
When this interview was released, there was a flood of new comments on Cardboard Cutout Ye Qiu's Weibo. Realities were being mixed. The boundaries of the universe were being smashed. Fans were freaking out.
("OP, how?? did??? you????? know???????? It has to be a coincidence, right???"
"A lot of people have dogs! Dogs are the most common pets! Little Dot is a common name for a dog!!! I'm not in denial!!!!!!!!"
"Is this Ye Qiu pulling the ultimate troll move on us all?? If it is, I will have to break my keyboard in his honor because holy shit.")
The public reply from the Cardboard Cutout "Ye Qiu" Weibo only stoked the conspiracy theories further.
"Of course I know the most about Ye Qiu, I am Ye Qiu."
("...I...I can't believe this, but I'm beginning to believe it."
"I don't want to believe it but also I have a strong feeling in my gut that only God Ye could scam us all this shamelessly...")
Eventually, this got so big that Excellent Era's public relations team got a hold of it and contacted their Ye Qiu for his opinion.
"This...isn't you right?"
Ye Xiu gave a disbelieving look. "Do you really think I'm sneaking a dog into my room and taking pictures of going skiing during Excellent Era's home game?"
"...Well...there are timed posts..."
"It's not me," Ye Xiu cut in before anything more ridiculous could be proposed.
"Then, should we do something about this?"
Ye Xiu didn't reply for a while, absorbed in scrolling through the sizable amount of posts on the "Ye Qiu" Weibo page. There had to be at least a year's worth of pictures, posted sporadically but never less than once a week. Every single one of them had a caption.
"Ye Qiu?"
"Ah, don't worry about it. I'll handle it," he dismissed with a wave. There was a rare smile on his face as he walked out of the room without saying anything further.
The helpless staff member was left more confused than ever.
The second major freak out involving the Cardboard Cutout Ye Qiu page was when the Official Verified™ Weibo account for Ye Qiu began to follow the joke account. It was the first account the rare cryptid Ye Qiu had ever followed. In fact, it was the first activity Ye Qiu had ever done on social media.
("CONSPIRACY CONFIRMED??"
"WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??????????"
"I've broken my keyboard, here is my video proof-")
Meanwhile, the owners of the two accounts largely ignored the commotion in favor of more private messaging.
"Your photography skills aren't so bad."
"Hmph, it's about time you noticed, shameless brother!"